The term “Yo-Yo” conjures up two things to me. The basketball fan who used to light up the Palestra back in the day with his mummer dancing on the sidelines and, of course, the toy. Like Yo-yo, the basketball fan, I’ve been cheering for the home team (in my case, the Democrats), and, like the toy, my emotions have been going up and down about this election.

On the upside, I was really pleased that Commonwealth Court Judge, Robert Simpson, decided to postpone enforcement of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law. This was a really victory for democracy. It would have been impossible for everyone who needed new ID to get it before the election. I know of an 89 year old who had about 75 people ahead of her in a line at the DMV. She gave up and went home.

On the downside, Judge Simpson simply postponed enforcement of this law, which means we will have to deal with this issue again. The fact that all of these voter ID laws are blatant attempts by the GOP leadership to disenfranchise Democratic constituencies should be enough to have them all declared unconstitutional.

Which leads me to another thing that I’ve been feeling good about, which is that the Supreme Court, over the summer, found the Affordable Care Act constitutional.

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On the negative side, I’m expecting Justice Roberts and his crew to some day say that the commerce clause of the Constitution cannot be used to justify the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Hopefully, that won’t happen, but I would not be surprised by anything the current majority on the Supreme Court does.

Things were certainly looking up for Barack Obama before that TV debate last Wednesday night. Mitt “47 percent” Romney was losing traction, donors, and supporters all over the place. All the swing states were going the President’s way including North Carolina.

Then came the debate and “kerplunk,” the President went down and Romney went up (although the polls don’t seem to have changed too much). I’m not sure why Obama and his advisors felt that acting Presidential and above the fray was the way to go. Romney had all his eggs in one basket – do well in the debate or else his goose was cooked. Romney seemed to be following the advice of George H.W. Bush’s press secretary, Peter Teeley, when he was Vice-President. According to an October 31st, 1984, article in the New York Times, Teeley said: “ You can say anything you want during a debate and 80 million people hear it.” And if what you say is proven not to be true by a newspaper reporter? “So what?” said Teeley. “Maybe 200 people read it, or 2,000, or 20,000.”

So, basically, what Romney did, to make an positive impression on debate viewers, was to say whatever he wanted to say, hoping that you would never figure out that what he was saying was not true. For example, the biggest whopper of all was when Romney claimed that his medical plan would cover people with “pre-existing “ conditions. This was the language of a con artist playing a con game. If you think Romney is proposing a plan that would cover people with pre-existing conditions better than Obamacare, I guess you are so poorly informed that there is no way for me to convince you otherwise. If you won’t believe me, listen to the statements put out by Romney’s staff. They’ve been saying it throughout the campaign.

Romney is counting on you being too busy with the details of your life to check out what he said. For another example, take Romney’s statements about his 5 trillion dollar tax cut not adding to the deficit or debt. See Mitt is going to balance this off by finding loop holes, limiting deductions, or whatever. He really doesn’t want to tell us the specifics. Now this, of course, is the biggest bunch of baloney since Nixon campaigned back in 1968 on his “secret plan to end the war”. He couldn’t tell us any details, because then it would not be a secret plan. People have been elected before using this type of verbal sleight of hand, so Romney might as well try it.

I have been wondering recently which politician would need a “swift kick in the pants.” I never would have guessed that Barack Obama, rather than say a Mike Turzai, would be my pick for this week. President Obama needs to realize that people can be so easily swayed by the theatrics of debate that the substance (which is clearly on the President’s side – e.g. the unemployment rate is now 7.8 percent) may be lost on some viewers. It’s a realization he needs to have quickly so that the next four years are not a series of Mitt Romney inflicted “downers” on the American people.

Contact Tom Lees, a longtime area resident and educator, at tlees2@aol.com.